Wild Detectives Bookstore in Dallas, TX notes that being right across the street from a Pokémon Gym is a boon for its location, as players often pop in for a coffee. Book Garden in Bountiful, UT is fortunate enough to be a Pokéstop itself, and has seen an increase in the numbers of families and groups coming in to hit the stop and then do a little browsing. Books & Games in Cambridge, MA reports a “slight uptick” in sales from using a lure on the store’s Pokéstop—an in-game purchase that turns Pokéstops into wild Pokémon attractors for half an hour.

Even bookstores that don’t have stops nearby are getting in on the excitement—Main Street Books in St. Charles, MO, is advertising itself as an “unofficial Pokéstop” and offering a discount on purchases for customers who can show them a screenshot of a Pokémon they caught within the store.

I checked with a nearby bookstore, Indy Reads Books, which is positioned close to two Pokéstops. The bookstore staffer I spoke to said they’d had a few Pokémon visitors, but not many. They had tweeted about it, however…

To whom this may concern: Mass Ave Is COVERED in Pokemon. Please come battle us. Please.

While not everyone is thrilled about the new influx of Pokémon Go players—particularly the operators of some museums and cemeteries—and a number of Pokémon Go players have been caught doing silly or dangerous things, the benefits for businesses that would like more people to stop in can be substantial. This is especially true for bookstores or libraries, which stand to gain from people stopping in without even knowing that they want something. The whole point is to get people in to browse the stacks, and these browsers will often discover something they hadn’t even known they wanted to read.

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Published by Chris Meadows

TeleRead Editor and Senior Writer Chris Meadows has been writing for TeleRead--except for a brief interruption--since 2006. Son of two librarians, he has worked on a third-party help line for Best Buy and holds degrees in computer science and communications. He clearly personifies TeleRead's motto: "For geeks who love books--and book-lovers who love gadgets." Chris lives in Indianapolis and is active in the gamer community.
View all posts by Chris Meadows

The discount they give for a picture of a pokemon caught inside is a nice idea but wouldn’t work on the long term.

For our business we’re currently trying to get user-generated content from people who accept our Pokemon Go Green Challenge which is to tweet us a picture of rubbish on the street which has been found while playing and we will pass forward to the local authority to remove it. How does this sound to you ?